Kids
by ThatDreamerWriter
Summary: Ten-year-olds Mariana and Jesus decide to run away after a falling out with Brandon. How will Stef and Lena handle it and how far will these kids get? (Just an idea that I couldn't get out of my head)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Just a quick and unplanned short story. Probably (3-5 chapters). **

**And excuse any horrible Spanish. Blame my Puerto Rican-ness. English is my first language and my Spanish _ain't that great_. If Spanish is your first language or you're really good at Spanish grammar, feel free to help me out a little. I'd really appreciate it. Accent marks are all over the place or not all there. My bad.**

* * *

"I HATE YOU!" a ten-year-old Mariana yelled at an eleven-year-old Brandon, right before her tears began to well up in her eyes and she stormed up the stairs and into her room, making sure to slam the door behind her. She jumped onto her bed and buried her face into her hands as she cried for a few minutes until she decided to stop.

The little girl saw her book bag lying on the ground and she immediately ran over to pick it up. She opened the zipper and threw all of the books to the other side of the room, one by one, not caring if she made any noise or ripped them in the process. She didn't care if the whole world heard her at this point.

As soon as she saw it was empty, she placed it on top of her bed and began grabbing some clothes from her dresser and throwing it in. But she froze when she heard the door creak open and lifted her head up from the fear. Quickly, she released a huge sigh of relief when she saw it was only her twin.

"Mariana, what are you doing in here?" he asked worriedly. "¿Porque está llorando? ¿Qué paso? "(Why are you crying? What happened?) Jesus asked as he ran over to his sister's side and lifted her chin up so that she'd look at him.

"Me voy. Ya no quiero estar aquí. Lo odió." (I'm leaving. I don't want to be here anymore. I hate him.)

"¿Quien?" (Who?)

"¿Quien vas hacer? El unico estupido que esta aquí!" (Who else would it be? The only stupid one here!)

"¿Qué te hizo?" (What did he do to you?) Jesus asked angrily.

"Nada. No importa." (Nothing. It doesn't matter.)

"Me importa a mi. ¿Te golpeó?" (It matters to me. Did he hit you?)

"No," Mariana sighed and she could feel more and more tears coming down her face. "Me dijo que yo no era su hermana…que esta no es mi familia y debo buscar la mia. Y es la verdad… Nunca voy a ser su hermana y Stef y Lena nunca van a ser mis madres. Quiero ir adónde de mami. Vamos a encontrar la Jesús. Por favor." (No. He told me that I wasn't his sister…that this wasn't my family and I should go find my own. And it's the truth… I'll never be his sister and Stef and Lena will never be my moms. I want to go where mommy is. Let's go find her Jesus. Please.) Mariana begged.

"¿Estás segura?" (Are you sure?)

"Sí,"(Yes.) Mariana answered.

"Si nos vamos… no puedemos volver. ¿Está segura?" (If we go…we can't come back. Are you sure?) he asked again, hoping that she'd say no. The truth was that he wanted to stay. He loved Stef and Lena and even sometimes Brandon, but he'd never leave his sister's side. If she was leaving, so was he.

"A quién le vas a importar?" (Who's going to care?) Mariana mumbled sadly as she closed the zipper of her book bag and threw it over her shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

Mariana and Jesus tiptoed down the stairs with their backpacks in hand and they placed them by the couch for now.

"We need money," Mariana whispered to Jesus. "And food."

"Oh, right," the little boy said as he walked over to the dining room table and opened Lena's purse, pulling out her brown leather wallet. "How much?" Jesus asked as he looked up at his sister, but she was already gone. He sighed and looked down at the crisp bills in front of him, which consisted of 1 fifty dollar bill, 4 twenties, and two singles. _There's four twenties so maybe she won't notice that only one is gone, _Jesus rationalized as he shoved the other bills messily back into the wallet and threw it in her purse without zipping it back up.

He quickly shoved it into his pocket and looked around to make sure that no one saw, before he made his way back over toward the living room.

* * *

Mariana peaked her head in the kitchen before making her way through and noticed both Lena and Stef chopping some vegetables on the kitchen counter. She let out a huge exasperated breath and rolled her eyes before making her way in and slowly tiptoeing inside, suddenly glad that their backs were turned. By the time she made her way over to the cabinets and pulled it open, she quickly glanced over its contents.

_Bag of potato chips? …Nope, too much noise._

_Box of cereal? …Nope, can't take milk._

_Multi-grain crackers? Don't have to think for that one. Ew, gross!_

_Cheez-Its?_

"Do you want a snack, sweets?" Stef's voice asked abruptly, which caused the girl to jump from fear. _Cheez-Its it is then,_ she thinks to herself as she grabs the red box of cheesy crackers.

"I got it," Mariana answered precipitously before she looked up at Stef and Lena with an obvious hint of nervousness. Immediately afterwards, she walked over to the fridge and pulled it open.

Both women shared wary looks with each other before placing their gaze back on their daughter. Lena thought she'd try next, "Dinner's in a few minutes, pumpkin. Are you sure you can't wait a little while?"

"I'm sure," Mariana said matter-of-factly, while she pulled two small water bottles out and held the box against her chest so that she wouldn't drop it.

"2 water bottles?" the blonde questioned. "... You must be really thirsty, huh?" she continued in hopes to get more out of what was bothering her.

"One is for Jesus."

"Oh," Stef nodded. "…And what about Brandon?"

"What about Brandon?" Mariana mumbled before she walked out of the room without a second thought.

* * *

Stef watched after her before she turned to look at Lena with a sly smile, "I guess we know who's the cause for this…" she sighed. "Don't you love it when they're like this?" she asked her partner, followed by a short chuckle.

"Oh you won't be so cheery in a few years when her attitude is directed towards you and not Brandon or Jesus," Lena reminded her.

"The teens," Stef cried. "God, don't remind me!" she laughed. "…But who knows? Maybe they'll find a cure for them by then. There's still hope, ya know."

"I'm afraid that's all it is, babe," Lena smiled.

"No," Stef cried in an exaggerated voice, causing Lena to laugh.

"…Do you want to go find out what happened?" Lena questioned.

"Let them cool off. They're kids. Let's enjoy the silence. I mean, come on. They'll probably forget all about it soon enough. And besides, dinner is almost ready. We'll get the deets then."

* * *

"Cheez-Its?" Jesus said in a depressed voice.

"Moms—" Mariana paused, "I mean Stef and Lena were in the kitchen. I had to be quick."

"Mariana, are you positive you want to leave? I mean aren't you going to miss them?" he asked again.

Mariana glanced back towards the kitchen sadly and then reached for one of the picture frames on the coffee table, which consisted of all five of them on the coffee. "We can still see them," she said as she unzipped her backpack and shoved everything in there.

_A picture was better than nothing_, she thought to herself.

"Okay," Jesus murmured as he pulled his book bag over his back again and led his sister out of their house.

* * *

The two siblings had been walking for five minutes and they weren't sure how far they'd gone. But they did know that they couldn't see their house any more, so that was a good thing. And Mariana was leading the way.

"Mariana, where are we going?" Jesus questioned out of boredom.

"Mommy's."

"How do you know where mommy is?"

"I don't. But we can take the bus and…and then we'll find her. We can go to tia's house and go from there. It's gonna be fun. Like an adventure," Mariana smiled as she started walking with a slight skip.

"Like Spy Kids?" Jesus smiled.

"No," Mariana said seriously. "Like Dora."

"I can't believe you still watch Dora. You're such a baby," Jesus shook his head in disbelief.

"Like you don't watch Diego?" she retorted. " Anyways, we already have the book bags and everything. We're the real live ones so it's better than the show. But…"

Jesus hesitated to ask, "But what?"

"We just need a map now."

"A map?" The boy glanced around his perimeter and starting running in the middle of the street.

"Jesus, moms said no running in the street! You never listen!" Mariana sighed as she slapped her leg.

"Well, moms aren't here now, are they? We can do what we want!" Jesus spat back.

Mariana considered the thought and a huge smile crept on her face before she ran over to him. "We can do what we want," she mumbled. "I like that." But when she glanced down at what Jesus had in his hand she couldn't understand why he had ran all the way over here in the first place, "What are you doing?" she asked with an apparent attitude.

"I found us a map," he said as he unfolded the napkin and began to examine it.

"That's a dirty napkin, Jesus," Mariana mumbled seriously.

"Haven't you've ever heard of _imagination_?" Jesus asked with obvious sarcasm.

"And you called me a baby? …Let's go," Mariana snapped as she tried to turn around and grab her brother so that he'd move it along, but froze when she saw a head peeking out from behind a red car. "Do you see that?" she asked him.

"See what?" Jesus turned around.

Mariana took a few steps closer to get a better look and immediately felt rage fill her body. "I'm going to kill him," she yelled as she dropped her book bag and ran over toward the car.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you kidding me!" young Mariana snapped the second she found Brandon crotched down beside the car.

Brandon stood up awkwardly and looked up at his younger brother and sister. "What? What's going on?" he asked innocently. But his nerves became obvious by his inability to make eye contact with either one of them. And the rosy color that appeared on his cheeks didn't help him either.

"Go home, Brandon! You don't get to come with us. No one wants you here!" Mariana spat, not caring about the fact that she was hurting her older foster-brother with her harsh words. In fact, it was exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to hurt Brandon just as much as he hurt her, when he told her to go live with her own family, knowing damn well that she didn't have one who wanted her.

Brandon just stared at her with a dumbfounded reaction in response.

"Go!" she ordered with even more anger than before, as she took a few steps closer towards him and crossed her arms. At this point she wanted to punch him more than anything. She had never gotten physical with anyone before, but all of the pent up anger she had inside of her was beginning to become unbearable.

Jesus immediately stepped in front of his sister instinctively. "Brandon, what are you even doing here?" he asked in a harsh yet confused tone. _Why the hell would he follow them? _he thought.

"Guys! You can't just leave whenever you feel like it! Tha—"

"Why not?" Jesus argued and furrowed his eyebrows the older kid. "You told her to leave!" he yelled as he put his finger in the taller boy's face. His whole demeanor was filled with accusation. It didn't matter that Brandon was older or much bigger than he was. All that mattered was that he hurt his sister's feelings.

"I didn't mean it!" Brandon defended. "I was just mad at her and it just came out!"

"That kind of stuff doesn't come out if you don't mean even mean it! You don't want us here! Just admit it!"

"Stop it!" Brandon yelled. "Both of you have to get back home now before moms find out we're all gone! So let's just go!"

"No," Mariana said sternly. "I'm not going back just because you said so! …Come on, Jesus," she continued as she grabbed her brother's arm and pulled him away so that they could keep walking.

"I'm telling mom!" Brandon shouted back.

"No, you won't!" Mariana shouted back as she turned to face Jesus, "He won't tell either of them because then he'll get in trouble too," she rationalized. "He's trying to trick us and we're not going to fall for it."

"I can't leave here without you. Just come back before something bad happens!" he shouted even louder than before.

Mariana paused in her tracks and since she was still holding onto Jesus, he stopped too.

_Yes, they're coming back,_ he thought to himself and couldn't help hide the smirk on his face. But instead of taking a step forward, Mariana turned around and stuck up her middle finger at him, causing for Jesus to open his mouth in awe and laugh before she turned around and kept walking.

* * *

"Do you hear that?" Stef paused as she pointed her finger to the living room and watched as Lena furrowed her eyebrows at her in confusion.

"Babe, I don't hear anything…"

"Exactly," Stef put the top of the pot back on and took a deep breath. "Complete silence… We haven't listened to that in quite a while. Huh? We should savor it for as long as we can," the blonde continued as she looked at both of the doorways of the kitchen to make sure that her children weren't lurking around, attempting to jump out and scare them. Stef assumed that if they were all mad at each other, they were all in their own rooms upstairs and would be too busy being angry with the other to come down.

Lena smiled when she felt Stef creep up behind her and wrap her in her arms. "I think we have timeeee," she whisper-sang as her lips fell on the nape of Lena's neck. Lena instinctively dropped the knife back onto the table and closed her eyes as she let the sensation of Stefs lips consume her… but only for a second. "Stef, wait," she moved her neck to the side so that she wouldn't give into to temptation again. "We don't know that the kids are upstairs."

"They are," Stef said in an almost desperate voice. "Come on, Lena, please?" she practically begged as her hands started unbuttoning Lena's blouse.

Lena let out a sigh in submission. "Okay, fineeee." Stef smiled. "But first make sure that the kids are upstairs."

Stef made a face at Lena but Lena remained still. Stef let out a deep breath, "Fine. But whatever happened to the element of surprise?" she asked as she raised her eyebrows before walking out of the kitchen.

"They don't need that kind of surprise," Lena chastised.

"Oh, come on!" Stef complained. "Everyone, that has walked on this earth, has at least listened to their parents having sex once in their life."

"Yes, they have," Lena agreed. "But if someone could take those memories back from me, I would be so grateful."

Stef chuckled, "It's part of childhood…"

"Not if I can help it," Lena said in a more serious tone as she refused to engage in Stef's attempt to have sex in the kitchen, before she knew that there were no children on the first floor.

* * *

The blonde sighed, "Oh god," Stef grumbled as she shook her head in disapproval though couldn't help but hide a slight smile before making her exit. Immediately, she tiptoed to the living room and noticed no one there.

_Check._

She walked over to the dining room, which was empty too.

_Check._

And just as Stef was about to walk toward the bathroom, she noticed Lena's purse lying on the floor with everything spilled out of it. _Hm?_ she thought to herself. _That's strange…_

She approached the mess on the floor of Lena's things and started tossing them back into her bag. But when she noticed Lena's wallet open and the mess of bills practically shoved back inside of it, she knew something was off. Lena was one of those neat freaks that always had her bills in order and laid perfectly straight inside of the pockets. And still, she figured she'd ask Lena about it first.

But when she notice a piece of paper with obvious writing written with a black sharpie, her eyes were immediately drawn to it. She came to the conclusion that one of them took some money out of Lena's wallet and wrote a note to tell her. _Completely unacceptable but at least the thief had a conscience._ She made her way over to the note.

**Twins ran away **

**I'm bringing them back**

**B**

And at that moment, Stef's facial expression completely shifted from confusion to shock, as she read the note twice just to be certain. Afterwards she even blinked her eyes few times as if the note would disappear and she realized that she had imagined it. She turned towards the front door, "LENA!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Lena!" Stef shouted as she ran towards the kitchen in search for the woman, "The kids are gone. Shut off the stove," she voiced in a stern voice before running for the door again and grabbing her car keys before twisting the knob. She realized immediately that the kids had left it unlocked but didn't bother paying much attention to it as she ran for the sidewalk. Stef placed her hand on her forehead to block out the sun that was distorting her vision in hopes that she would see any of her children.

"What do you mean _gone_?" Lena yelled back the second she reached the doorway.

Stef scanned her perimeter slapped her leg with her hand before running towards the drivers-side of her car. "They ran away."

"What?!" Lena asked in an panicked tone. "All of them? Why?" questioned as she closed the front door, not caring if she locked it or not, before running towards Stef's car and getting in.

The blonde turned on the ignition and speedily backed out of the driveway, causing Lena's body to shift upwards from her seat.

"Stef!" Lena yelled when she realized that the blonde was stuck in her own thoughts. "Can you just relax, please?! We're going to find them just slow down. They couldn't have gotten far."

"Oh, when I find them," Stef voiced angrily as she kept her eyes focused on the road.

* * *

"Wait! Where are you going?" Brandon yelled as he tried to catch up to the twins.

"Somewhere you're not," Mariana spat.

Jesus looked over at Brandon and saw the hurt and confused expression on his face, "We're going to find Ana."

"Jesus! Shut up!" the girl threatened.

"Ana? Your birth mom, Ana?"

The other two remained silent.

"…You can't," Brandon informed them. "She abandoned you, BOTH of you."

"I don't see how that's any of your business, Brandon. And it was your idea to begin with so don't act like you care now!"

"I'm not acting!" Brandon shouted as he ran over to step in front of them. "I do care! I care about both of you! It's your mother who doesn't!"

Mariana's eyes began to water, as she had to listen to those words for the first time. She shook her head, "It doesn't matter. She's still our mom. And I wanna see her."

"What about my moms?" Brandon questioned. "What about us? We don't matter?"

"That's just it. They're_ your_ moms. Pretty soon we're just going to get moved to another home and then we'll have _new_ foster parents… But _our_ mom will always be _our_ mom, no matter where we are."

Jesus spoke up, "She's the only permanent thing we have besides each other… even if she's not there all of the time… You don't understand because you have three parents who are always there…I'm sorry Brandon, but I'm with Mariana on this one. We need to stick with what we have."

* * *

"Oh, thank God," Lena mumbled the second she and Stef were able to see their three children in plain view. They both breathed huge sighs of relief as they pulled up closer in back of Jesus and Mariana.

Brandon saw the car pull up, but it wasn't until the screeching of the breaks that the twins whipped their bodies around to see both women through the windshield.

Jesus seemed somewhat relieved to see them, but Mariana's face depicted pure fear as she saw her foster mothers getting out of the car. Her mind kept telling herself to run but her body disagreed and she stood frozen instead.

And the second Jesus noticed Mariana's stiffness; he immediately went into protective mode as he brought his sister closer toward him. He wouldn't take any chances no matter how much he trusted the two of them. The boy even pulled Mariana backward when they began to approach them.

And even though Stef and Lena were both angry with all of their children, that didn't stop them from letting go of that anger and running over to engulf each of them into a hug.

The little girl flinched the second that Stef wrapped her arms around her and she wasn't sure how to respond for a while. She felt even more confused when her foster mother kept kissing her forehead rather than hurting her for _being bad_.

_She wasn't their kid so why were they acting as if she was?_ It made no sense to her and that confusion was made obvious to Stef only when she released her. The blonde made a sad face before moving onto her other sons.

Mariana glanced over to Jesus before she felt Lena squeezing her tightly. And just after a few seconds of letting her go did the older woman actually look the girl in the eye and cup her chin with her hand. "Don't you ever scare us like that again. Do you hear me?" she threatened, but making sure she used a loving and soft tone at the same time.

"And you!" Stef threatened Brandon when she let go of Jesus, "Why wouldn't you just tell us that the twins left? …That note was not okay," she let him know.

"I know," the oldest boy admitted. "It was stupid."

"Ya think?" Stef asked sarcastically before she kissed her son on his forehead. "I get that you were trying to watch out for them, B. You're a good big brother but—"

"No, I'm not," Brandon voiced as he shook his head. "I was the one that made them leave in the first place. It was _my_ fault."

"How?" Stef questioned. And to no one's surprise, he couldn't find the courage to answer her. The blonde glanced over toward the twins, "So who wants to tell us what happened?" she continued, when it became obvious that Brandon wasn't going to speak up anytime soon.

"Why did you leave to begin with?" Lena asked them but all eyes moved toward Mariana, who was tearing by now.

"What happened sweets? Why did you feel like you had to runaway?" Stef continued as she walked over toward the girl.

Mariana noticed the shameful look on her oldest brother's face and she couldn't help but feel the need to protect him too. Even she didn't understand the instinct. The girl knew that he had hurt her, but still…she wanted to protect him like Jesus had done for her many times before. Telling on him wouldn't have done either of them any good, but she knew that she had to say something.

"…I wanted to see my mom," she answered truthfully. "I just wanted to go home," she cried.

Instinctively, Jesus walked tried to walk over toward his sister to console her, but what surprised when it was Lena and Stef who surrounded her instead.

And though the moms didn't say another word to Mariana, it was obvious that they didn't blame her as they kept their close proximity. Instead, they spoke to each other through eye contact and ushered their kids to the car.

"Come on," Stef said. "…Let's go home."

**A/N: One more chapter. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

As soon as Stef opened the front door, she watched silently as the three smaller bodies entered in a sulking manner. She sighed as soon as she caught whiff of the apologetic look on Jesus' face but she wasn't sure how to approach them all just yet. "Upstairs. The three of you. Move it. Move it," she mumbled in her usual marching voice but it showed just how tired and upset about all of this she really was.

When she closed the door behind Lena, she turned around and noticed the three of them moving but Jesus turned back around and looked at the two of them guiltily.

"Yes?" Lena asked when she realized that he was just going to stand there looking at them. The younger boy reached into his pockets for something. But a few seconds later, began panicking as if he had lost it. Stef and Lena both exchanged glances of confusion as they waited for him.

After a few more seconds, Jesus' finally pulls out a crumbled twenty-dollar bill. Immediately afterwards, he attempted to hand it over to Lena. "I…" he started but paused when he didn't want to admit that he stole it, "That's yours," he answered. "I didn't… I only took it for Mariana. I didn't want to…"

"You know that stealing is not okay," Stef scolded as gently as possible. "Especially when you're living in a house with a cop, yes?" she questioned, hoping to gain even more authority because of her profession.

Jesus nodded and put he head down before he mumbled, "I'm sorry… I know we've been really bad and…" he shook his head, "Never-mind."

"What, Jesus?" Stef urged him to continue.

"…You can send us back if you want," the boy whispered.

Stef changed her demeanor and lifted his chin up, "We wouldn't dream of sending you anywhere, okay?" She tried to offer him a reassuring smile afterwards so that he wouldn't really think that.

"Stef's right," Lena confirmed. "Thank you for telling us the truth. We really appreciate it, Jesus."

Jesus wanted to smile but he knew better than to get his hopes up. And he couldn't ignore the fact that Stef said _We wouldn't dream of sending you anywhere_.

She didn't mention Mariana. And he always went wherever she went.

"Okay," he answered shyly and he walked toward the staircase and up to his room.

Stef let out a deep breath that she had been holding the entire time. "So what do you want to do?"

"Besides take a hot bath and relax? …I don't know…. They're all safe. That's the most important part."

"How ironic is it that the day before we decide to ask them, is the day they decide to bolt?"

Lena sighed, "What if they're not ready? I mean, you heard Mariana. She was on her way to go see _her mother_. And you should've seen her face when you hugged her, Stef. She looked so confused as if she had not clue why we came for her at all. Do you think… Do you think that's the problem? That she's afraid that we don't think of her as part of this family already?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we waited long enough to decide to adopt them Stef."

"Oh, please. It hasn't been that long."

"3 years?"

"Well, what do you expect? We weren't even sure we could handle Brandon at first. I mean, look what happened today. All three of them went AWOL on us. I mean—" Stef paused mid sentence and took a seat on the nearest sofa. "They are all _so_ grounded," she voiced out of frustration.

Lena nodded, "I completely agree with you. But…"

The blonde sighed, "What?"

"This is kinda our fault," Lena confessed.

"How do you figure?" Stef asked out of confusion.

"Those kids have been _our kids_ for a while, Stef. I mean… look what happened after they disappeared for ten minutes. What if… What if we didn't find them? Or what if Bill came to take them away while we were fostering them, huh?"

Stef looked up at the ceiling as she started taking in everything that Lena was saying.

"They are already a part of this family and they need to know it. Not tomorrow. Now. I don't want Miss Thing getting any more ideas," Lena informed her.

"You do realize that it's only going to get worse as she progresses. Getting her brother to steal, running away, and that attitude—"

"At ten years old," Lena mumbled dramatically.

"Are you sure?" Stef questioned.

"Stef!" Lena scolded as she shoved her playfully, causing the blonde to burst out laughing.

"Kidding. Kidding," Stef put her hands up in submission.

"Now, all that's left is to tell Brandon, and ask them."

"We'll tell Brandon later. We'll ask him and make him feel like he had a choice or something," Stef joked.

Lena smiled, "And what if he says no?"

"He won't…Mariana defended him today. Did you not see how scared he looked? He'd be stupid to say no…"

* * *

"Mari-ana," Stef said softly as she entered the girls room. Neither mom was surprised to find Jesus there in a tight embrace with his sister. The little girl didn't even want to glance up at both moms, from fear that the worst would happen. She clenched onto her brother's shirt and Jesus took that as a queue to wrap his arms around her even tighter.

Stef and Lena exchanged glances before they walked over and sat on the little girl's bed, one on each side of the twins.

"Sweetheart, what's going on?" Lena asked the girl. "Why are you crying? There's no reason to cry."

"Mama's right," Stef answered. "We're not going to yell at you."

Mariana and Jesus squinted their eyes in confusion when they heard Stef call Lena 'Mama' in a conversation with only them. They had always referred to both women by their names so hearing that change was a bit weird for them.

But they chose to ignore it for now. "That's not what she's worried about," Jesus voiced matter-of-factly.

"Jesus, no le digas nada," Mariana voiced. (Jesus, don't tell them anything.)

"Por que?" (Why?)

"Hey, now." Stef stopped them both. "That's not fair. We told you two that Spanish talking is not allowed in this house while we are present."

"Nos van a botar. A que le importa ahora?" Mariana continued. (They're going to throw us out. Why do they care now?)

"Jesus, what did she say?" Lena asked.

Mariana gave him a stern look through her tears.

But he ignored it, "She said that you're going to throw us out soon anyway so why do you care?"

"Honey," Lena began as she put her hand on Mariana's lap, "That's not true."

"Mentirosa," Mariana mumbled.

"Hey!" Stef stopped her. "I know what that one means," the blonde informed the girl in a stern voice. "We are not lying to you, sweets. Why don't you believe us?"

Jesus shrugged his shoulders and Mariana remained silent.

Stef let out a deep sigh. "Do you wanna know something strange?" she asked the two of them. "…After all of you disappeared today, it made your mama and I realize that… we couldn't imagine our world without you either of you."

Lena nodded, "And we should have done this sooner, and we're sorry about that. We're sorry for taking so long. Maybe if we asked you before all of this, you wouldn't have left…" Lena asked the two of them.

The twins looked at the two of them with blank expressions.

Stef felt like she had to address something that had been bothering her but wasn't sure exactly how to address it. The thought of _What if they say no?_ keep repeating through her mind but she knew that she had to say something. "Basically, what your mama and I would like to know is…" she sighed, "Would you consider… being a part of this family."

"Well you already are," Lena interrupted.

"Yes," Stef confirmed.

" But we want to… we thought that we'd make it more… permanent, I guess?" Lena continued.

Both of the twins sat frozen for a while and Jesus looked toward Mariana, "It's up to you, Mari," he offered. It was obvious that he wanted his sister's input and that was the most important. He wouldn't accept their offer immediately even though it was what he really wanted.

Mariana stared at two women with a dumbfounded expression on her face. And eventually she found the courage to speak to them directly, "… After all that we just did? You still want to keep us?" she questioned from fear of showing too much excitement before she felt they were really certain.

"Of course we do," Stef answered. "But only if you are willing to stay this time?" she asked.

"And we don't want to replace your birth mother," Lena confirmed. "We just… want you… both of you, to stay…"

"What do you think, Mariana?" Jesus asked his twin sister.

The little girl immediately let go of her grasp on Jesus and wrapped her arms around Lena, "No take backs, she mumbled in her chest.

"No take backs," Lena smiled.

**THE END.**

* * *

**This was just a short story that I'm hoping most of you enjoyed. It was just supposed to be three chapters, but I felt like adding how the twins were asked to get adopted made it more… worth it? Idk? I felt like there aren't many stories on here where the twins were young and just getting used to the moms and Brandon, so that's where the idea came from.**

**Thank you to everyone who read. And I'm sorry that I took so long to finish this short fic but hopefully it was worth it :)**


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